Properly Thanking Regina
by JMolover13
Summary: A year after saving Emma from a wild truck, Regina gets drunk and confesses her feelings.


**Rating: T**

**Word Count: ~2900**

**symistic asked you: non established swanqueen regina saves emma and realises that she has feelings for emma. then she keeps coming up with ways to spend time with emma thanks**

**AN: Hope you enjoy!**

"Sheriff Swan!" Regina called from the sidewalk outside the station. She was going after her for the 20th time that week to get on her about Henry.

"Ah, Madam Mayor." Emma gave an actual sincere smile with an actual sincere tone, "What can I do for you today?" She wasn't letting anything get to her.

"Actually I need your budget report by 4 o'clock today. But that's not why I sought you out."

"Yes, I know about the budget; I've gotten your many, many e-mails." This smile was cocky, "And responded."

"The same sentence with the same grammatical mistakes makes me think it's automated." Regina raised her brow.

Emma's face fell flat, "What do you want, Regina?" She crossed her arms, "I'm on lunch…"

Regina was looking off to the side as she stepped out in the parallel parking lane with the blonde. Something caught her eye though and she didn't respond. As the bustle of everything she was seeing caught up to her ears and brain, it was almost too late.

A truck was swerving throughout every lane and it was coming for them.

Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around Emma's waist and turned, diving for a patch of sidewalk she begged and pleaded to not be covered with reckless truck or parked car mere seconds later. She fetaled up, Emma still in her arms, covered both of their heads as best she could and waited.

The truck plowed through the empty space they had been standing in, and after hitting both the parking meter and the tree on the corner, it stopped.

They both sat up, Emma with wide eyes and Regina concerned ones, "Are you alright?" the mayor asked.

Emma stood and helped the brunette, "You… You saved me…" She said before walking over to the car in a bit of a daze. "He's not breathing!"

~0~0~0~0~0~

The next day, Regina walked into the station. She was both surprised and expecting her feet to take her there. Something happened as she held onto the blonde the day before. Something good. She wanted to know what it was, but didn't know what to say to bring it up. She just wanted to see the blonde again to be completely honest. And that scared her just a little bit. She decided to act as if it were any other day though, "You got the budget report in by 4 yesterday…" She wasn't hiding her surprise.

"Well, you'd been asking for it for like a week and a half… It was all done, I just like to make you sweat." Emma smiled.

"But after yesterday, I wasn't going to require it…"

Emma knit her brows, "You went right back to work after we checked up on that poor bastard, why wouldn't I?"

This made Regina think, "Well…"

"Well?"

"I don't know."

"I mean if either of us were to take a day, it should be you… You were the hero yesterday."

Regina put her hand up and shook her head, "Um—"

"Oh, hey, what were you going to talk to me about yesterday? We were in the middle of a conversation when it happened."

"Oh… that's not important."

"Why? Was it important yesterday?"

Regina bit her lip, "Would you like to join Henry and me for dinner Friday night?"

Emma's jaw dropped a bit. After taking a moment, she knit her brows, "That's not what you were going to talk to me about yesterday."

Regina clasped her hands together, "It's customary to answer a dinner invitation."

"It's customary to answer a question…" The sheriff crossed her arms and looked on expectantly, "Come on, Madam Mayor. You answer me, I'll answer you."

The mayor swallowed, "I was going to ask you to stop feeding Henry before you dropped him off, which you aren't supposed to do on weekdays anyways."

"So, what you're asking me to dinner so that you can make sure I don't feed him?"

"No that's not it at all…" Regina smiled, but she wasn't sure why. Maybe because it was so silly in her head the conclusion the sheriff came up with. She looked at the blonde, "I'm asking you to dinner because I wanted to offer a truce. I wanted to feed you to start to make amends for the horrible way I've made us start out."

Emma raised a brow, "You know you make us sound like a couple when you say it like that?" She watched as they mayor blushed and turned from her, "Yeah, I'd like to come to dinner Friday… to let you start making amends for the horrible way _we've_ started us out. As long as you let me treat you to dinner tomorrow evening."

Regina knit her brows, "What?"

"Hey, it takes two to tango, and you just happened to lead that first dance." She closed her eyes through a slow shrug, "You weren't the only one at fault… that's all I'm saying."

~0~0~0~0~0~

"That was _so_ good." Emma said, a smile on her face, as she wiped her face with her napkin and put it on her clean plate.

Regina smiled. She liked knowing that she could make the blonde so happy over a meal of empanadas, flautas and sopapillas. She suddenly started playing the 'what if?' game—which had been happening all too much that entire week—and asked herself what it would be like to feed the blonde every evening. That of course turned into 'what if she were in my bed every night and woke up next to me every morning,' and that made her want that kind of connection.

Sure they subtly flirted, checked the other out. But now they had their truce. What would happen to that if Regina told her she had this big, major, insane crush on her? _That_ she wasn't prepared to deal with.

"Yeah, mom makes the best Mexican food." Henry agreed as he licked his finger and ran it across his plate.

She stood, "Glad you enjoyed it." She started clearing the table.

"Oh, here, let me help you." Emma quickly got up and reached for the dishes in Regina's arms then finished picking the remaining dishes and brought them to the kitchen.

Regina tilted her head and looked at her son who only shrugged before she followed the blonde, "You didn't have to do that…" She saw Emma start to put on her rubber gloves, "And you don't have to do that!" She slapped her hands away from the gloves, "You're a guest."

"I don't mind helping."

"I do." Regina raised her brow in challenge.

Emma put her hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright. I won't ever do the dishes in your house ever!"

_When you move in it will be _our_ house and then you can do them—Oh my God what am I thinking?!_ Regina turned quickly and started scrubbing the dishes.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Their truce led them to many a meal together. Lunches at the diner, dinner at the fancier restaurants and of course at the mansion. Henry wasn't sure if it was good or bad, but what he did know was his mom was much more lenient with sweets now that Emma was with them for most of their meals. It became the norm for them over that next year—yeah, it was an entire year before that night.

That night being the night that things changed. Regina had been competing with the built up emotion for too long, and she decided to keep her wine glass full. Emma hung out until Henry went to bed. Regina even asked her to tuck him in.

In a move that her mental state dubbed sexy, she decided to take off her clothes and wait on the living room couch in her skivvies for the blonde to come back down.

"Okay," Emma said as she came down the stairs, "Kid's in bed and I have one of my own that's sounding more and more appealing." She grabbed her jacket, not looking in the living room.

"Oh you're leaving?" Regina slurred as she stood up, "I wasss hoping you would ssstay for a bit." She started walking over to the blonde.

The blonde checked her pockets for her keys, still not looking the brunette's way, "As appealing as it sounds, watching you get completely hammered, I really need to sleep and so do you… after you take some aspirin or something for your impending hangover. Where the hell..?"

"In da bowl on da hall tree." Regina pointed as she neared the blonde in her half naked glory.

"Thanks." Emma glanced the brunette's direction before reaching, then retracted her arm as if she touched fire and did a triple take over the form of the mayor, "Regina! You're naked!"

"I'm not naked." She wrapped her arms around Emma's neck and stuck her nose in her hear, nuzzling her a moment before whispering, "Yet."

Emma pushed the brunette by her hips and stared at her. She looked into her eyes as she asked, "Regina? Where are your clothes?"

"Living room. But I have a better room I want you to come with me to." She tried to turn to the stairs.

"What? No, Regina, come on!"

"Oh, you have a better place? Let's go." She took a step towards the front door.

"Regina!"

"What? Henry's in bed, he doesn' know…" She tried taking another step, but the blonde stopped her.

"Go put on your clothes, please!" the sheriff begged.

"I'd rather take yours off…"

Emma stared at her. Begging was not getting through to this woman. Maybe flirting would? She did her best flirty smile, "Oh really?"

Regina smiled back, "Mhmm…"

There was one question plaguing her mind that she had to ask, "Just uh, how long have you wanted to get me naked?"

"Oh, a long time…" The mayor leaned into the sheriff and started kissing her neck.

Emma's eyes rolled to the back of her head. She knew that if she gave in that it would be mind-numbingly amazing. But that's not how she wanted to be with the woman—Wait, she wanted to be with the woman?

_She cooks you food, she's good with your kid—Christ, she's your kid's mother, she's God damn hella sexy, she's got that need for power you've always been weak in the knees for, and you have that undeniable chemistry with her… What do you think, Swan?_ She mused as she wrapped her arms around the woman's waist and brought her back into the living room laying her down on the couch, "How long?" she whispered, knowing the brunette would move from the place on her neck.

Regina pulled back, "Since I did this to you." She gestured to Emma's arms. "That's how long I realized I was in love with you."

"When you saved me?" Emma asked with sincere, amazed eyes.

"Yes." The mayor leaned back in to nuzzled Emma's neck.

"Hey, you know what's super sexy to me?" She knew that Regina wouldn't feel the energy shift.

"What?"

"Clothes. You in clothes."

Regina chuckled, "No, I can tell. You like me better out of 'em."

_Fuck…_ She didn't know what to do, "Okay, how… How about this, how about we play a game? You like games, right?"

"A sexy game?"

Emma rubbed her forehead, "You are super horny, aren't you, Regina?" she muttered, not thinking Regina would actually respond to her.

"Super horny." The brunette said as she leaned into the blonde again.

Emma saw the woman's clothes in a neat pile. _Typical._ She pulled from Regina and scooped them up. Regina only followed her over and waited for her to turn back around before she latched onto her neck again. "Oh sweet baby Jesus." She closed her eyes and gave in just for a minute. But as Regina's lips neared her own, she pulled away once more, "No, Regina."

"No?" Regina stared at the blonde, "But you said we were going to play a sexy game a-a-a-a-a-and I'm naked almost!"

"Yeah." Emma put her hand up to calm the other woman, "We are!" She whispered and looked to the stares, "You just have to give me just a second, okay?"

"Okay."

Emma looked around and made sure that she had everything of Regina's before turning back to her, "Okay. The game is—No! No kissing on the lips." She pulled away as Regina tried to plant a few on her.

"But I want to…"

"I know, Regina, I do too, but it's all part of the game, okay? It's one of the three main rules: Rule number one, no kissing on the lips. Rule number two, you have to be extra super quite. Rule number three, we need to be in the bedroom…"

Regina's eyes lit up and she closed the distance between them, "How about you carry me up the stairs like this?" She wrapped either leg around Emma's waist, "It'll make it more fun."

"Okay, but remember, you have to stay super, extra quiet." Emma whispered as she started walking the woman upstairs.

"I have a good way to do that." Regina whispered back and started back into Emma's neck for a third time, or was it a fourth or fifth? She couldn't remember, she just knew it was fun.

Emma after getting to the top of the stairs with the woman literally wrapped around her, darted passed Henry's room and went to Regina's. She threw the woman's clothes on the small table in the corner and put the woman on the bed.

After Regina laid down, she realized how sleepy she actually was, "Emma?"

"Yes, Regina?" She sucked in a couple breaths.

"Can we play the game tomorrow? I'm tired."

Emma watched on as if she was watching something precious. She watched the mayor kick off her shoes and try to get under her covers. "Yeah, Regina, we can play the game tomorrow." She helped her out and then moved to the door.

"No! Where are you going?"

Emma turned, "I'm gonna go home."

"But you can't; I want you to stay!"

Emma looked into the brunette's pleading eyes, "Alright, I'll stay. I'm going to go lock up, okay?"

Regina nodded, "Hurry back."

When Emma got back, she found Regina fast asleep. She sighed as she crawled on the bed over the covers and snuggled to the brunette's back, giving them some kind of barrier for when they woke up in the morning.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Regina woke up with a headache and a weight against her she couldn't place. As she laid there, memories began flooding back. She groaned and started to roll on her back, but was stopped by a mass. Finally looking at the mass, she scrambled out of the bed and into the bathroom.

Emma woke up to the slam of the bathroom door. She took a moment before she walked over to the door and tried to open it, "Regina?"

"What did we do?"

"Regina, nothing happened."

"Oh really? Explain how you got that hickey on your neck? Oh God!" She moaned as memories came flooding back.

"Are you okay? Regina, come on! Let me in." She felt the weight move from against the door and opened it, "What's going on?"

"I did it, I gave you the hickey. It was all me… I threw myself at you." She shook her head, "I am so… sorry."

"No, don't apologize. It's good."

"Oh, it's good that I took off my clothes and tried to have my way with you?"

Emma chuckled, "Well, it tells me where we are instead of making me wonder all the time…"

Regina stared at her, "And just… where are we?"

Emma smiled as she sat on the ground completely and pulled the rug that the brunette was sitting on between her legs, "Well, I'm here…" She gestured to her spot on the ground, "And you're here…" She gestured all around the brunette, "And you're still half naked." Regina tried to pull away, but Emma wouldn't let her. She pulled her own shirt off, "And I'm half naked." The blonde took the brunette's face in her hands, "And we're half naked together in the same room." She grinned, "And you told me you were in love with me and you realized this a year ago." She stared into those brown orbs a moment, "And I wanted you to be able to remember when I told you that I've been in love with you as long as you have with me." She pressed their foreheads together, "And I'd like to be completely naked with you showing you just how in love with you I am this evening after I take you on a date."

Regina nodded slowly, "I'd like a date."

"Good." She kissed the brunette's cheek, "You know, I never did properly thank you for saving me… Expect that in the nakedness tonight."


End file.
